Utilities have long wrestled with the problem of access to dwellings in order to read their meters. Various methods of reading the meter from outside the house have been proposed. One method currently popular users a counter mounted outside the house, available to the meter reader without the necessity of entry into the home. An indexing electro-mechanical counter of the type shown in U.S. pat. application filed Jan. 14, 1976, having Ser. No. 648,855, and assigned to the assignee of this application, is typical. This counter accumulates the total throughput of the meter, and corresponds with the reading of the register on the meter.
These counters need protection -- from the elements, from insects, from vandals and from dishonest customers who would alter the total shown.